Video Clip Sharing: Baby Talk@14mths

Was showing the boys some video clips of them when they were 1+.  They were amazed!

All of us had some good laugh.

Here's sharing one of the video of them "baby talking" when they were 14mths old (corrected age: 12mths old), hope you enjoyed it as much as we do.

Triplets Self Feeding

Triplets are 20mth old now.. (corrected age 18mths)

Recently had been very busy with them and also making some photobook.. Didn't really get the time to update the blog. However, yesterday manage to record a video of them self feeding (thick porridge), so... enjoys the video clip.

Video was taken at the beginning of meal time, by the end of the meal... the table, floor, face, hair.. everywhere are in mess... (should have taken a photo of it)

Meals time is always not easy.  Have to prepare some nutritious meal and yet something that suits all of them. Although 3 of them are identical, but they do have their own personality and liking.  
Self Feeding is another stage of learning which involves a lot of patience, time and mess.  However, it is still good to start them early, especially if you are having multiples.

Snip.. Snip.. Snip.... Triplets 1st Haircut

Since cubbyDaddy was back from Singapore during the weekend, we had decided to give cubbies a haircut.  Their hair had not been shaved or cut since birth, and now they are 14 months old.

Initially we planned to cut their hair when they are taking their nap... However, it is tougher than we thought.

So, we changed our mind and let them sit on the high chair.  For safety reason, we had chose to use the shaver instead of scissors.

We tried blowing bubbles to distract them.. but after a short while, we noticed the boys were totally alright with the idea of cutting hair.  They were sitting quietly and didn't make any fuss.

We were so proud of their good behaviors.. they get to have fun in the pool after the session :)

Here are some photos to share:

 

cubbySyuen with his new haircut

cubbyJuin posing handsomely before the haircut

 

cubbyHung waiting for his turn

  

Thank you cubbyDaddy for the cool hairstyle, we love it!!!

Triplet's Nap Time

"What time is their nap time?" is one of the very common questions people tends to ask.
They will usually followed by "Do they all sleep together??"
"They nap for few hours??"

When Do They Nap?
I did not make a fixed schedule for them to follow.  Hence, they will nap whenever they feel like napping. :)

Advantage:
Flexible for adults in a way, whenever we feel like bringing them out, we'll just do it without worrying it affects their schedule.

Disadvantage:
When they are excitedly playing, they can over-tired themselves without us or them knowing it.  The next thing we know is that they start to be cranky and fussy.  When they are over-tired, it's not easy to put them to sleep.

Nowadays, they usually nap twice a day (1 year old toddler).  Once before lunch time and once in the afternoon.  The timing can be still vary.  For the morning session, sometimes they can fall asleep right after the breakfast (about 10-ish), sometimes not until 12 noon they fall asleep.  For the afternoon session, it is worst. For example, today one nap at 230pm, and by 3pm, all fast asleep.  Sometimes, they refuse to nap till it is 6pm.


How Long Do They Sleep/Nap??
Usually they nap for 30mins - 2hours.  Once again, the timing is not fixed.  We won't know when they wanted a longer nap.  3 of them might have different schedule, for example Triplet 1: 30mins - morning, 2 hours - afternoon; Triplet 2: 1 hour - morning, 1 hour - afternoon; and Triplet 3: 2hours - morning, 30mins - afternoon.


Do They Nap Together/Same Time?
They DON'T!  Sometimes you can have 1 napping, sometimes 2 napping.

Advantages of napping at different time:
You get to spend some personal or 1 to 1 time with one of the triplet while the other 2 are napping.
Less strenuous for new parent.  Handling 1 or 2 crying babies are much easier than 3 crying babies.

Disadvantages of napping at different time:
There's no time for you to nap together with them.  You have to stay awake the whole day and not having any 'me' time.

I will try to make all 3 of them nap together.  However, if each boy needed 10mins to put to sleep, there's a high chance that after the 3rd triplet fall asleep, the triplet who napped first might be time to wake up.  End result, three of them are not napping at the same time too. :)

Today, consider a bonus... the boys slept almost together in d morning and in the afternoon.

11am: cubbySyuen found his favorite spot - next to the sofa (sometimes under the sofa), one finger in his mouth, another hand holding d corner of the pillow... fall asleep without patting :)

11:10am: cubbyJuin also found his favorite spot and position, lay down next to me, thumb into the mouth, one hand holding onto my hand.. fall asleep without patting as well :)

11:15am: cubbyHung still active and busy playing...

11:20am: cubbyHung found his favorite pillow, 2 fingers into the mouth, one hand touching the pillow... fall asleep without patting :) and in the center of the toys too...

11:22am: Carried cubbyHung onto the bed, lights off... and I have free time to cook up their lunch. 

11:40am: cubbyJuin wakes up, followed by the other two at 12pm.

To reward them for their good nap time.. I've converted part of the sofa into a climbing platform for them... will blog about it another day :)

Cubbies are Toddling ! ! !

What is 'Toddling'?? 

From thefreedictionary.com/toddle

"toddle [ˈtɒd^əl]vb (intr)1. to walk with short unsteady steps, as a child does when learning to walk"

3 weeks ago during cubbies 1st Birthday, cubbies were only able to toddle few steps.  Within 2 weeks, they are able to toddle for quite a distance before falling down.

Only manage to take a few shots of cubbySyuen when the other 2 was taking their nap (cubbySyuen refused to nap).

Was shocked with his strength, he could lift up my tumbler (filled with water) and toddle with it. 

From this progress, I guess they should be able to walk when they are 13 months (corrected age 11 months, cos they are 2 months preterm).

Before this, we were still thinking to get them a push-walker...

But now, we can save $$ on that!!!  

However, it is time to consider 'Baby Harness'.  I'm sure they will start to toddle or walk around when we bring them out.

Should we get the one with backpack??

               Or just the normal safety strap harness??   

Any recommendation???

Pasta: Cheesy Macaroni (Elbow Pasta)

 

Suitable for 1yr old toddler

(My triplets love it very much!!!) 

Ingredients: Macaroni (Elbow Pasta), Carrots, Apples, Cheese

Method:

1. Boil the pasta for 15mins (to get it really soft)

2. Boil carrots & apples, in the photo below, I boiled the carrots and then add on frozen apple puree

3. Blend the boiled carrots & apples into puree

4. Rinse the cooked pasta will cool boiled water

5. If your toddler is able to chew the pasta, then skip this step.  I find the pasta quite difficult to chew apart with the gums, so, to make my life (feeding time) slightly easier (the triplets tend to choke quite often), I'd decided to blend the pasta as well.

Do add in some water while blending it.

6. Finally add on a slice of cheese (while the puree are still hot)

7. 'Ta-Da'.. The final result after mixing all up

Could frozen up the pasta & carrot puree sauce.  Add in cheese when heating up.

*  *  *  *  *

Books from Amazon:

     

Playpen for Triplets

Our long awaited playpen has finally arrived!!!

Why do we need a playpen for Triplets?
The triplet cubby-babies are getting very fast in their crawling and sensitive towards the surrounding. They enjoy exploring to the nearby coffee table, the nearby wiring, table cloth and so on via crawling or cruising. We used to put pillows, bolsters, and cushions to block their way, but now, they will either crawl over it or hold it as support to stand which may result in tumbling down.

With this Lindam Safe & Secure playpen, we could put all three of them into the pen.  However, triplet cubby-babies cry after some time because they had been used to having a large area to roam about.

playpen which can accommodate triplets

Hence, we remove the confined playpen style into a room divider which is the actual intention in buying this playpen. This works better as their play area remain the same, but in a more secure condition. And for us, there is lesser areas for us to child-proof.

Using it as room divider

This playpen shouldn't be use with the intention to cage them. It is just to isolate the not so secure area for explorative babies.

Triple joy: Helena and Kenz’s amazing birth story.

28 April 2011 at 11:28

Helena and Kenz’s first pregnancy joy tripled when they found out that they were going to have triplets. They share their amazing journey from pregnancy till the birth of their three boys Evanz, Enrique and Eytan Lee.

The best Chinese New Year gift


Helena:
It was around Chinese New Year (February 2011) and I was around 10 weeks pregnant when our excited doctor showed us three heartbeats on the computer during an ultrasound scan.

Our (or rather Kenz’s) initial reaction was one of disbelief. The triplets were conceived naturally and since there was no history of twins on both sides of our families, we were naturally surprised. We informed our families immediately - they shared our surprise, joy and excitement.


Finding the right hospital


Kenz:
Our first few antenatal checkups were at a private hospital in Selangor.

In the meantime, we were still looking at various options as to where Helena would deliver our babies. This was no ordinary pregnancy and we knew that apart from our need for quality medical care, we also had to take into account the cost factor as having triplets was going to be expensive. We not only had to account for the delivery cost but also for the neonatal care for prematurely-born babies, common in the cases of multiple births.

Government hospitals provide antenatal care and delivery services at minimal cost so we made trips to a few hospitals within Kuala Lumpur and Selangor such as the Universiti Malaya (UM) Hospital and their Specialist Centre (UMSC), the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKM) and Selayang Hospital.

Finally, we decided on Selayang Hospital. We felt that this was the most baby-friendly hospital (for us) and it had an impressive NICU unit.

Although Selayang Hospital is a government hospital, we chose to with a ‘full paying patient scheme’for the antenatal care. We paid more for the medical services and got to choose our medical specialist (for birth and antenatal care). We also had shorter waiting-time during our visits and got ultrasound scans every month.

These medical checkups including the scan, blood tests, medications and supplements cost us around RM60 per visit.


Three-in-one delivery


Kenz:
Carrying our triplets was hard on Helena even as early as second trimester. On doctor’s advice, we had to be extra careful and I helped to ensure Helena had a lot of bed rest with limited walking and no other strenuous activities including cooking or washing.

We were advised to prepare ourselves for an early c-section delivery. The initial estimate for delivery was at 34 weeks. However, Helena’s water bag broke at 32 weeks and she had to have an emergency caesarean.

Helena:
Our three little ‘cubbies’ (they were born in the year of the tiger) Evanz, Enrique and Eytan arrived on August 11, 2010. They were healthy with birth weights of 1.8kg, 1.6kg and 1.1kg.


It was overall a very positive birth experience as we were comfortable with the doctors and well cared for by the rest of the medical team.


Postnatal care


Kenz:
After her delivery, Helena stayed for about a week in a private room at Selayang Hospital. The whole cost for both the c-section delivery and for her week-long stay at the hospital cost us less than RM1,000.

We went back to Selayang Hospital for Helena’s postnatal check-ups twice. We also registered at a government Mother and Child Health Clinic near Petaling Jaya, Klinik Ibu Dan Anak Kampong Dato Harun, that provided free infant checkups and routine immunisations for our babies.

Helena:
I was well cared for at Selayang Hospital with plenty of encouragement and guidance on breastfeeding my triplets. Although the hospital serves vegetarian food (I am a vegetarian), I opted for home-cooked meals. All my confinement food was prepared by my mother-in-law.

My babies stayed for almost a month in the NICU unit at Selayang Hospital. It was a confined area, strictly parents only with 24-hour care. They were breastfed throughout.


Feeling blessed (three times over)

Helena:
We are indeed very tired but also very happy parents. We are also proud and see our boys as triple blessings from God.

Also, I am extremely grateful that we chose Selayang Hospital for their optimum medical care and for the fact that we didn’t have to mortgage our house to get it!

Kenz:
Selayang Hospital felt like a private hospital; everything was clean and new with plenty of warm and caring doctors and nurses.

At times, looking at my three identical boys, it almost feels surreal. I am indeed thankful that we were blessed with triplets and for Helena’s overall healthy and smooth delivery.

I do occasionally think about having twins next – girls this time!

Published in www.babycenter.com.my

Tips on Dressing up baby after Bath

Bathing baby is not the most tiring and exhausting thing.... the dressing up part takes up more energy and time.

The challenges of dressing up baby
When the triplets were younger, changing or dressing them is quite effortless.

However, as they had master the rolling over action (at around 4-5months), they tends to roll over once or twice during a diaper change.

6-7 months, when they are able to roll both ways & start crawling, they have the tendency to keep flipping over. And they will start to crawl away too.

Now, when they are 8-9 months, they had mastered efficient crawling skill. The moment they are placed down, immediately they wriggle to free himself and crawl away. This make changing a real sweating and challenging chore.

Tips on attracting baby's attention
When they were younger (4-5 months), I will usually keep a soft ball in the room which they won't be playing it throughout the day except after the bath. This is to keep the toy 'fresh' and 'new' to them. Once the ball is given to him, then he will quietly explore the ball with his fingers & tongue too. This allow us to have ample time to apply lotion and dress up the baby.

For 6-7 months, try dressing them up in front of a mirror. It works great for my triplets. They enjoy watching the baby in the mirror and start to converse with them. With this distraction, dressing up became easier.

Now, with great sitting, crawling and standing skill, it's no longer possible to dress them up with them laying down, unless there's an interesting toy for him to 'chew' on. Try changing in sitting position (when he's able to sit unsupported), or even with the baby in standing position (provided he's able to stand independently or grab on tightly on your shirt). Standing is an interesting activity for baby who is learning to balance. But have to be careful as he'll tumble down any moment.

Triplet is sick

Found cubby juin feverish when fed him at 4am.

Wipe him with wet towel fr head to toe. Paste a cool patch on his forehead. Took off his long pants, change his long sleeve shirt to short sleeve.

He is still very active & chit chat with me for an hour plus. Breastfed him & hope he'll be able to sleep.

Hope he'll feel better tmr.

Triplets' Sleep Pattern 2

Cubbies all have their individual sleeping style & pattern.

Cubby Hung - he had just started learning to "bulldoze" (pushing forward with his head on the ground). Whenever he's sleepy, he will start to bulldoze from one end of the bed to the other end. He will only stops when his head kept pushing against something. He will then lay down to rest.

Cubby Syuen - quite independant, once he's sleepy, he wants to be put onto the bed. Not so much of carrying to sleep. If he's not put onto the bed, he will cries & scream.

Little cubby Juin - he's active and full of energy. He will not rest if he's still full of energy. Hence, we need to give him lots of kickings and jumpings during the day in order to use up his energy. However, if he's too active, he refuse to rest even when he's sleepy. He will keep on jumping till he is over-tired & exhausted. When this is the case, he will be extreamly fusy and refuse to calm down. So, we'd to be very observant. Once, he has shown sign to sleepy such as yawning/rubbing his eyes, we need to begin calming him down. Way to calm him down: cubby-angel's hug & singing. 'twinkle twinkle little star' is d no.1 song in calming him.

Triplet's 6th month Development Milestone

Tmr will be cubbies 6th month b'day... (corected age: 4 months old)
Happy birthday cubby Hung, Syuen & Juin!!!

Cubbies 6 mths development milestone:

Hung
1) able to rollover from front to back and vice versa
2) learns to crawl, with the head sticking on the floor, backside sticking up...bulldozing his way from one end of the bed to the other end.
3) very friendly smiles
4) grabing skill still developing
5) learns to grab things with both feet
6) less talkative, limited sylables.

Syuen
1) able to rollover from front to back and vice versa
2) learns to crawl, with the head sticking on the floor, backside sticking up...bulldozing his way from one end of the bed to the other end.
3) very friendly smiles
4) grabing skill still developing
5) yet to grab things with both feet
6) talkative, able to make lots of sounds & uses sound to attract attention.

Juin
1) able to rollover from front to back only. 
2) can change directions but not moving forward nor bakwards.
3) very friendly smiles
4) grabing skill developing fast, observe fingers & use it to grab things
5) yet to grab things with both feet
6) talkative, limited sylables.

Triplet's Sleep Pattern

This is 2nd nite cubbies r resting early. Thou it's still not as early as other babies, I'm still very glad & satisfy with their progress.

Usually they only goes to bed earliest by 2am, these 2 days, they are asleep bout 1230am. There're still 1 round of feeding after 12. By the time complete feeding, it's already 130am. To most people, this is consider as Late, but to us, it is a BLESSING, considering they used to take turns waking up throughout the night at the initial stage.

Hopefully, cubbies will continue to sleep early or may be even earlier as they grow older. :)

Feeding Preemie

4th Oct 2010 

Today is my pregnancy EDD, which means cubbies r officially 40 weeks.

Cubbies are born premature at 32 weeks. although they are not micro-preemie, they r still consider preemie with low birth weight of 1.8kg (Hung), 1.6kg (Syuen) and 1.1kg (Juin).
There are many new learning for parents of preemie. This time I'll share on Feeding!

Feeding a full-term baby is so much differ fr a preemie. I once took for granted (n i think most ppl hv this same thought too) that all babies r born wit d capabilities to eat/suck. 
What we found out during cubbies stay in NICU is tat we need to teach preemie to suckle!

1) TUBE FEEDING
During d 1st few days of stay in NICU, cubbies r fed using tube where d tube r inserted from his mouth into d stomach. D first sight of d tube make me tears as they r so tiny n yet needed to insert d tube. So, our first feeding lesson in NICU is to learn how to feed them using d tube.

2) SYRINGE FEEDING
We introduced syringe feeding to stimulate the baby's sucking action.  We had to control or fingers when pressing & releasing the breastmilk into bb's mouth while encouraging bb to lick & suckle. 

3) CUP FEEDING
When Hung is ready to learn sucking, he was first introduce sipping fr cup. Till now,i m still very raw to cup feeding,i'll end up pouring all out instead of feeding.

4) SUCKING
Hung did not know how to suckle fr breast. Hence, I was taught how to give him cheek massage, lips massage and tongue massage to stimulate his sucking movement. It seems that bb learns sucking movement in mummy's womb during week 33. But Hung was born at 32 weeks, hence there's a need to give him time to develop the ability to suck.

5) SWALLOW
Then we need to teach Hung how to swallow. Even during cup feeding, Hung will tends to keep all milk in his mouth without swallowing.

6) SUCK & SWALLOW & BREATHE
When Hung had mastered d sucking & swallowing skill, he needs to be stimulate to perform both d action n synchronize wit breathing. What a tough process for just a simple action of sucking milk.

I still remember there's once when i was BF Hung, suddenly his face turned blue. Since we're reminded on this, I quickly unlatch him fr d breast and gave him few slaps on his feet to wake him up. He was fine after that.

Preemie r known that they hv the tendency to forget breathing, regardless it's feeding, crying or even laughing. Even till now,we still need to b observant on d changes in bb face during feeding, to ensure bb remembers to breathe & swallow.

BreastFeeding the Cubbies

2nd Sept 2010

Many ppl had asked me this question during pregnancy 'will u b breastfeeding?? Won't u consider formula?? Not everyone has milk supply, esp for 3, u need to hv other option'

My answers to all those questions was always 'YES, breastfeeding for all 3, believe in supply n demand...believe tat since god has given me three cubbies, he must also give me the ability to feed 3'.

Breastfeeding indeed u need lots of support from family n friends, esp your closest hubby. Hubby once asked do we need to buy some formula just 'in case', my response was 'if we had d thoughts of in case, then definitely we won't b persistence in BF'. Hence, i rejected d idea of getting formula in advance. Thanks my dear for understanding & respect my opinion.

Still remember during d first few days after delivery, i kept pumping n pumping, but only a few pathetic drops of colostrum appear. By the time it is deliver to NICU, d colostrum had all dried up (looking just like birdnest).

However, thanks for encouragements fr hubby and advice fr my sis & dear friend feei chyi. They kept encouraged me to continue n answering to all my BF questions.

Only on day 4 afternoon, the first droplet of milk appear. We were so happy with our persistent.

Now, i'm capable of producing sufficient milk for 3 cubbies ^.^

1st night with 2 boys (triplet 1 & triplet 2)

29th Aug 2010

2nd cubby was moved in to recovery room together wit 1st cubby.

In d afternoon, hubby n i tried feeding both babies. I BF one,then pass to him for burping while i BF d other, then pass it over again.hahaha..it was fun!

Nite time (as hospital NICU rules, all daddies must leave the recovery room by 1030pm), cubby2 repeated d cries like cubby1. It should b due to d new environment. He cried from 12-4am. After that, cubby1 cried from 4-530am. *yawn* cubbyDaddy should be arriving at 930am